Investigating Natural Ventilation Inside Walk-Up Housing Blocks in the Egyptian Desert Climatic Design Region

This paper presents a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of natural ventilation strategies used in government dwellings in the Egyptian desert climatic design region. Three government housing blocks, built in the New Al-Minya city, were employed as case studies. Autodesk-Ecotect and FloVent CFD software were used to simulate the internal air movement and air temperatures. Theoretical analysis shows that there is considerable cooling potential by natural ventilation, with the thermal comfort potential being improved by up to 52% peak and 33.5% average. Adding thermal mass improves comfort potential by up to 74.5% peak and 66.4% average. However an analysis of the case study buildings showed that theoretical performance could not be achieved. In particular night purge ventilation was not effective as a passive cooling strategy due to poor air circulation across the dwelling. Improved design to take advantage of passive cooling is essential.